Another year has gone and I’m sure it’s been a busy one for most of you. With contractual changes and new legislation it’s often difficult to keep up with everything that we need to.
New in 2015
We had to implement the final stage of online access for patients and, although this was only to provide a summary of the patient record, full access to read coded information will be required by 31 March 2016. Also, the Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) Act introduced a mandatory reporting duty from 31 October 2015 which requires regulated health and social care professionals and teachers in England and Wales to report ‘known’ cases of FGM in under 18s which they identify in the course of their professional work to the police.
Changes to Come
At the end of July we saw the launch of the inquiry into primary care which includes scrutiny of GP pay and workload – the Primary Care Scrutiny under the Five Year Forward View. The House of Commons health committee planned to look at the evidence at the end of this year to ensure that high quality care is consistently available to patients at the point of need. Next month the CQC will be launching its final stage of its consultation on the CQC strategy for 2016-21. They will be holding two workshops for primary care professionals (London on Monday 25 January and Newcastle on Tuesday 26 January) to find out more about the proposals for the strategy.
CQC Reports
Since January 2015 the CQC has published nearly 2,300 GP practice inspection reports, 84% of these practices were rated as good or outstanding. In the CQC’s 2014/15 State of Care report, published in October, the CQC found many examples of outstanding care which other practices are able to learn from and hopefully demonstrate too.
Apparently 59% of the practices that completed the CQCs post-inspection survey said they thought that the inspection assisted them in driving improvement. 9 practices have successfully come out of special measures. Some practices have exceeded the ‘requires improvement’ rating and gone straight from inadequate to good. Overall, of the 103 practices that the CQC has re-inspected 93% have improved.
In Summary
In summary, many practices have made significant efforts to demonstrate the excellent care and services they provide and it’s great to see that this is being recognised through CQC inspections and reports. The CQC will be launching a formal consultation on its 2016-21 strategy in the New Year. They are looking to further develop their approach to inspection and regulation of primary medical services.
